Never too late to create a Facebook application
Not too long ago, very few media companies had invested time in creating Facebook applications. But with the millions of registered users visiting the site every day, there has been a rush to be a part of Facebook profiles everywhere. Examples of great Facebook apps include Time Magazine's Quote of the Day app, The New York Times News Quiz (which has roughly 1,500 unique users a day), and InStyle.com's Hollywood Hair Makeover (about 3,300 daily users). All of these infuse an element of fun into journalism and have an element that keeps Facebook users coming back.
Building a Facebook application is still very much for those with technical knowhow, but there are a few third party applications making the process easier. First, start off with this post from Tony Hirst that details a few of said applications, including Dapper Facebook AppMaker.
It's never to late to create a winning Facebook app, according to Stanford instructors Dr. BJ Fogg and Dave McClure. Some of their other musings: "simplicity and clarity are the key to app success" and "copying success is a cheap/fast way to succeed." I couldn't agree more.
Nevertheless, the abundance of applications are quickly turning Facebook profiles into the poorly designed pages of its rival MySpace. I did want to share though a personal favorite of mine: Flog Blog. The neat little app lets users add RSS feeds to their Facebook profiles, should their favorite blog not already have a Facebook application. I, of course, use it to keep friends updated about 10,000 words.
Facebook and MySpace are of course two of the hundreds, if not thousands, of social networks floating around the web. But what other social networks are popular around the web? According to this map Orkut is popular in Brazil and India, hi5 is popular in Portugal, Mongolia and Peru, and Blogger is a hit in France and Pakistan.
Building a Facebook application is still very much for those with technical knowhow, but there are a few third party applications making the process easier. First, start off with this post from Tony Hirst that details a few of said applications, including Dapper Facebook AppMaker.
It's never to late to create a winning Facebook app, according to Stanford instructors Dr. BJ Fogg and Dave McClure. Some of their other musings: "simplicity and clarity are the key to app success" and "copying success is a cheap/fast way to succeed." I couldn't agree more.
Nevertheless, the abundance of applications are quickly turning Facebook profiles into the poorly designed pages of its rival MySpace. I did want to share though a personal favorite of mine: Flog Blog. The neat little app lets users add RSS feeds to their Facebook profiles, should their favorite blog not already have a Facebook application. I, of course, use it to keep friends updated about 10,000 words.
Facebook and MySpace are of course two of the hundreds, if not thousands, of social networks floating around the web. But what other social networks are popular around the web? According to this map Orkut is popular in Brazil and India, hi5 is popular in Portugal, Mongolia and Peru, and Blogger is a hit in France and Pakistan.
Labels: widgets
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
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Taking Twitter to the next level (Part 2 of 2)
If you haven't already read yesterday's post on how journalists are using Twitter, check it out here
So you're twittering. Now what? It's time to take a look at sites that are making the most out of Twitter's ability to instantly transmit the news.
Instead of waiting for traffic updates online or via radio, some internet users are turning to Commuter Feed. The site lets Twitter users send updates about local traffic around the country directly to the site, where the feeds are searchable by city or metropolitan area.
Politweets tracks the political discussion happening in the Twitterverse by aggregating tweets about political candidates. The most recent tweets about Democratic candidates are on the left and Republicans are on the right. In the middle is a list of candidates positioned by how much they are being discussed (Barack Obama is currently at the top of the pile).
Because the web is all about citizen journalism, truemors is made up of news submitted by the average Joes and Janes of Twitter. It's kind of like a micro social news networking site that aggregates the content that people care about from a variety of news sources. Twemes is also a great way of indexing what people are talking about online. The site is useful for searching tagged tweets on any subject, like, for example, John McCain.
Twitterers are already discussing major news events, including Super Tuesday and Sunday's Academy Awards; it's just a matter of major news organizations grabbing the opportunity and creating their own news hubs.
Did you know Twitter isn't just for sending text? TwitPic and Twixtr both allow users to send photos either online or via mobile phone through Twitter. So instead of simply including links to new stories, anyone can add photos to accompany their tweets (and we know photos are a great visual attraction).
Twittervision combines Twitter and Google Maps to create a real-time visual idea of where tweets are coming from. The only requirement to appear on the site is a location and an image defined in your Twitter post. The 3D version is also worth a look, if only for the coolness factor.
Twittermap creates a visual display of geotagged tweets and can also be used to find Twitterers by location. Those familiar with data mashup editor Yahoo! Pipes can use geo twitter to get a geotagged feed of your Twitter posts, which can be displayed on a Yahoo or Google map.
Twitter draws a lot of comparison to Facebook's status updates (example on the right), so it make sense that Twitter also has its own Facebook application to keep friends and followers updated via the social network.
There are a lot of interesting and useful sites based on Twitter and with the Twitter API up for grabs, there is no reason that journalists can't be a part of the next evolution in news.
So you're twittering. Now what? It's time to take a look at sites that are making the most out of Twitter's ability to instantly transmit the news.
Instead of waiting for traffic updates online or via radio, some internet users are turning to Commuter Feed. The site lets Twitter users send updates about local traffic around the country directly to the site, where the feeds are searchable by city or metropolitan area.
Politweets tracks the political discussion happening in the Twitterverse by aggregating tweets about political candidates. The most recent tweets about Democratic candidates are on the left and Republicans are on the right. In the middle is a list of candidates positioned by how much they are being discussed (Barack Obama is currently at the top of the pile).
Because the web is all about citizen journalism, truemors is made up of news submitted by the average Joes and Janes of Twitter. It's kind of like a micro social news networking site that aggregates the content that people care about from a variety of news sources. Twemes is also a great way of indexing what people are talking about online. The site is useful for searching tagged tweets on any subject, like, for example, John McCain.
Twitterers are already discussing major news events, including Super Tuesday and Sunday's Academy Awards; it's just a matter of major news organizations grabbing the opportunity and creating their own news hubs.
Did you know Twitter isn't just for sending text? TwitPic and Twixtr both allow users to send photos either online or via mobile phone through Twitter. So instead of simply including links to new stories, anyone can add photos to accompany their tweets (and we know photos are a great visual attraction).
Twittervision combines Twitter and Google Maps to create a real-time visual idea of where tweets are coming from. The only requirement to appear on the site is a location and an image defined in your Twitter post. The 3D version is also worth a look, if only for the coolness factor.
Twittermap creates a visual display of geotagged tweets and can also be used to find Twitterers by location. Those familiar with data mashup editor Yahoo! Pipes can use geo twitter to get a geotagged feed of your Twitter posts, which can be displayed on a Yahoo or Google map.
Twitter draws a lot of comparison to Facebook's status updates (example on the right), so it make sense that Twitter also has its own Facebook application to keep friends and followers updated via the social network.
There are a lot of interesting and useful sites based on Twitter and with the Twitter API up for grabs, there is no reason that journalists can't be a part of the next evolution in news.
Labels: maps, photos, social networking, widgets
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
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Super Tuesday Live!
Craving Super Tuesday results? Keep up with the latest totals below, courtesy of MSNBC.
More election goodness:
More election goodness:
- Super Tuesday Coverage Around the Web (Cybernet)
- Google Trends Predict Super Tuesday Outcome (Advertising Lab)
- Keeping Tabs on Super Tuesday (ReadWriteWeb)
- Google teams up with Twitter to make Super Tuesday geomap (Webware)
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
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Facebook opens the floodgates for applications
Note: Facebook links require password
Facebook, once the restricted online social network for college students, opened its doors a few moths ago to anyone with an e-mail address. Recently, Facebook also extended its API to developers who have in turn created third-party applications that users can incorporate into their Facebook pages. The applications range from the useful myTV, which allows users to search YouTube from Facebook, or Daily Bible Scripture which, you guessed it, gives the user a daily Bible scripture. A cursory search shows the Daily Show and Bill O'Reilly have already jumped on the Facebook bandwagon, but there is not much in the way of media organizations.
Facebook is the 6th most popular Web 2.0 application behind #2 myspace and #1 Youtube, according to Movers 2.0. Still at more than 30 million users it contains a possible untapped source of new readers or viewers that may gravitate toward your content. Don't know where to start? Take a look at
Mashable's 30+ Awesome Applications for Facebook. Also check out the Application Developer Series which matches businesses with Facebook developers who will "see your ideas come to life."
Still not ready to take a leap? Try making a Facebook group that will allow users to subscribe to your content and get regular updates at their leisure.
Facebook, once the restricted online social network for college students, opened its doors a few moths ago to anyone with an e-mail address. Recently, Facebook also extended its API to developers who have in turn created third-party applications that users can incorporate into their Facebook pages. The applications range from the useful myTV, which allows users to search YouTube from Facebook, or Daily Bible Scripture which, you guessed it, gives the user a daily Bible scripture. A cursory search shows the Daily Show and Bill O'Reilly have already jumped on the Facebook bandwagon, but there is not much in the way of media organizations.
Facebook is the 6th most popular Web 2.0 application behind #2 myspace and #1 Youtube, according to Movers 2.0. Still at more than 30 million users it contains a possible untapped source of new readers or viewers that may gravitate toward your content. Don't know where to start? Take a look atMashable's 30+ Awesome Applications for Facebook. Also check out the Application Developer Series which matches businesses with Facebook developers who will "see your ideas come to life."
Still not ready to take a leap? Try making a Facebook group that will allow users to subscribe to your content and get regular updates at their leisure.
Labels: social networking, widgets
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
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